Description

Contra Costa Crisis Center Charity Profile

Our mission is to keep people in Contra Costa County, California alive and safe, help them through crises, and connect them with culturally relevant resources in the community. We do this by operating five county-wide programs:

24-Hour Crisis Lines. We operate Contra Costa County’s suicide prevention hotline. Founded in 1963, it was one of the first of its kind in the U.S. All local calls to the two national suicide hotlines (800.SUICIDE and 800.273.TALK) are routed here. Staffed by highly-trained volunteers, the line provides counseling, support, and resource information to people experiencing personal crises as well as those contemplating suicide. We also handle all night, weekend, and holiday child abuse calls to Children’s Protective Services and elder abuse calls to Adult Protective Services.

Grief Counseling. Our grief counseling program is one of the oldest, largest, and most diverse bereavement services in California. Started in 1973, it provides individual and group counseling to youths and adults mourning the death of a loved one. Counseling is conducted by trained volunteers, many of whom once were grief clients. Support groups meet throughout the county for children who have lost family members and friends, parents who have lost children, survivors after suicide, families victimized by SIDS, and others. All counseling is free, and many volunteers speak Spanish. We also have a 24-hour grief line, as well as a special team that provides counseling at schools and businesses following the death of a student or adult.

Homeless Services. Our 24-hour homeless hotline is the first point of contact in Contra Costa County’s continuum of care for the homeless. Through the hotline, individuals and families are referred to food, shelter, health care, job training, transportation, and other services. We also provide motel vouchers to homeless families, and we pay for free, personal voice mail boxes so that hundreds of homeless people have a way to communicate with employers, service providers, family members, and others.

Youth Violence Prevention. Our 24-hour youth crisis line is a safe place for students to call and report weapons on campus, another student’s homicidal or suicidal remarks, bullying, cutting, gang activity, and other dangerous behavior, which we then work to prevent. We also conduct classroom and community presentations on violence prevention, talking with students about pressures they face and how to deal with them effectively. Our MySpace page promotes our agency’s youth-related services.

211 Information and Referral. 211 is the national, toll-free, three-digit phone number to call for help and information, and we’re the authorized 211 provider in Contra Costa County. Trained resource specialists answer calls from people in the community who need health and social services. Our 211 database has up-to-date information on 2,500 resources for local residents, and is accessible free of charge in 12 languages. We also publish regional guides, in English and Spanish, of essential services.

Contra Costa Crisis Center Volunteer Information

Crisis Center volunteers come from diverse cultures and economic backgrounds. Their ages, religious beliefs, and political affiliations vary. They have different skills and life experiences. What they share is a desire to help others and a willingness to listen.

Being a volunteer can be hard. People you don’t know and may never meet except over the phone will share painful, intimate details of their lives. Most will be in difficult situations, some life-threatening. It’s these challenges that make the experience rewarding.

Contra Costa Crisis Center Donation Information

All of our services are available 24 hours a day. They’re also free of charge. Community support makes this possible.

Donation Options:

Credit Card, Online, Real Estate, Vehicle